Plant Cuttings
The fruit-fly and the cactus
Aesop (slave and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece 620–560 BC(E)) is credited with many fables that delivered morality tales, etc.
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Waste not, want not…
A little while ago we looked at auxotrophic algae getting a helping hand from bacteria; now we’ll take a look at ‘proper plants’ that get
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Bryophyte ‘sperminator’…
Co-opting animals to help with pollination is a major event in flower (angiosperm) biology – and is very much a do-or-die act. But have
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A blooming marvellous innovation
I know that this year’s British summer hasn’t been much to write home about (and you would be writing home to the UK– who
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Fungus genome figured
Sticking with fungi (Aha! The ‘Melbourne Code card’ duly played!), but a more benign side this time is this uplifting tale. In the West we are
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COR, nice one, Mr Microbe!
Although open stomata are necessary for plants to take up CO2 for photosynthesis, this also permits loss of precious water – by transpiration, the so-called necessary
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Vital amines
Notwithstanding plants’ rightly applauded self-sufficiency, and remarkable life-sustaining synthetic abilities using basic inorganic ingredients, some plant-like organisms need a little extra help in
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Straightening out the Palmaceae
As one of the most obvious indications of growth, you might have thought that there was little new to discover about increase in length of plant
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Taming the carnivore
Animals are well known for recognising a good thing when they see it. So, too it seems are carnivorous plants – those erstwhile gentle botanics that are
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That sinking feeling…
Whilst forests – aided and abetted by cryptogams (see my previous post) – have a major role as biotic carbon sinks on land, in the oceans that role
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Cryptic contribution to N (and C) cycles
In this global-climate-change-obsessed world we frequently hear the term carbon sink, which is a ‘natural or artificial reservoir that accumulates and stores some
Plant Cuttings
A nod in the right direction?
Congratulations are in order to the John Innes Centre (Norwich, UK) for its recent award of nearly US$10m ‘to test the feasibility of developing cereal